Village Squire, 1976-06, Page 21•
UTILITY COSTS
WILL INCREASE
.. Added well adds
tO wotPt increase
The Exeter Independent
.... ewc
le..ep Mu.w..
wnd Mc.+�
... Hydro up 6.7 percen t
Editor Bill Batten says the two Exeter papers are putting out good products and sees no reason
why both can't continue to co -exist.
John Norman, pulled out and left Mr.
Donnelly to run the editorial side of things.
He's proud of his nose for news, his ability
to break stories in The Reporter before the
'Beacon Times or the daily newspapers in the
area hear of them. He likes the smaller page
size of a tabloid newspaper because it allows
more attractive presentation of news.
The Reporter recently became only the
second weekly newspaper to join the Ontario
Press Council, a council set up to hear
complaints of improper use of the powe=r of
the press.
The staff of 14 part-time and full-time
employees operates out of makeshift
headquarters in an old house, but the
confidence in the future �f the paper is shown
by the owners by the fact a Targe addition has
started at the side of the house to provide
more space and allow the installation of new
" equipment.
Mr. Donnelly says he works 80-90 hours a
week gathering the news for the paper and
cultivating contacts. The secret to the success
of his paper, he says, is good hard, direct
news. The hours may be long, but he appears
to love the work.
The third new paper was born nearly 100
miles to the southeast last November. The
Exeter Time -Advocate was sold to new
owners. Dissatisfied, long-time editor Bill
Batten and fellow reporters Ross Haugh and
Ted Rowcliffe (who incidently, was also a
former editor of the Kincardine News)
decided to start their own newspaper. They
first purchased the nearby Zurich News as a
base from which to operate and on Nov. 1,
brought out the first issue of the Independent
News. It was not a particularly good time to
be bringing out a new paper. Initial
circulation was to be 7000 free copies each
week distributed by mail. The trouble was the
post office was on strike.
Still the paper got out and met with
immediate success. Working around the
dock, the trio and the rest of the staff of 14
people, full and part-time managed to get
both the Independent News and the Zurich
paper out each week and to gradually
increase the size of each. Since Christmas,
the Independent News has averaged 36-48
pages.
Yet the Times -Advocate doesn't seem to be
suffering too badly either. The two northern
upstarts in Kincardine and Port Elgin are
working in a fairly volatile and growing
market due to the influence of the Bruce
Nuclear Power Development, but Exeter is an
old established town with steady but
undramatic growth. The fact both papers are
doing well is more surprising here.
But Bill Batten, says Exeter will likely stay
a two newspaper town. Both papers are
putting out good products he says and the
businessmen of the community are support-
ing both with advertising. There is'nothing,
he says, to suggest this can't continue.
The Independent News, concentrates, Mr.
Batten says, on basic reporting of community
events, good bad or indifferent. The paper
probably puts more emphasis on pictures
than some newspapers, he says.
Mr. Rowcliffe is more responsible for the
Zurich newspaper while Mr. Batten and Mr.
Haugh work out of the Exeter office, though
all three are involved in both newspapers to
some extent. They try to keep their two
papers from battling each other too much for
circulation etc. They aim at finding items of
news that will fit well into both newspapers.
After six months, Mr. Batten says, things
are just starting to fall into place in the
organization. There has been a lot of
headaches in building a new organization and
only now are people starting to really get to
know their jobs and things become routine.
Any goals for the paper right now, are short
range goals.
One of the first will likely be a switch to
paid circulation. At present the switchover is
being made from mail delivery to door-to-
door delivery, helping the paper move from
Thursday morning delivery to Wednesday
night.
It's hard to say how long the three towns
will remain two -newspaper towns. The oldest
of the upstart papers is only just over a year
old. Yet by the relative health of all six
newspapers involved, it seems quite possible
that after a half century of one newspaper in a
town, the two -paper town could be here to
stay in Kincardine, Port Elgin and Exeter.
VILLAGE SQUIRE/JUNE 1976, 19